Bank Told It's Not A Target

BANKING

Tampa Grand Jury Seeks Documents

WASHINGTON — NationsBank said it was told by federal prosecutors the company is not a target of a federal grand jury investigation involving securities sales by NationsBank and Barnett Banks.

The bank's statement followed reports that a Tampa grand jury has issued subpoenas for information about the company's securities sales.

A Tampa lawyer who has represented NationsBank customers in private lawsuits said he got subpoenas seeking documents about mutual fund and other securities sales by NationsBank and Jacksonville-based Barnett, which was acquired by NationsBank earlier this year.

NationsBank, the third-largest banking company in the United States, issued a statement saying the U.S. attorney's office in Tampa ``assured'' it that ``neither NationsBank nor any of its subsidiaries, including Barnett and Barnett Securities, as well as NationsSecurities, are targets of any grand jury investigation.''

NationsSecurities is the brokerage unit of the Charlotte, N.C.-based company. Barnett Securities is the brokerage unit of Barnett.

A spokesman for the Tampa U.S. attorney's office, Monte Richardson, concurred with NationsBank's statement. ``NationsBank is not the target,'' Richardson said.

Prosecutors did not say whether any employees might be targeted by the grand jury, Richardson said.

NationsBank agreed earlier this month to pay $6.75 million to settle civil charges by federal regulators alleging that the company misled customers by marketing volatile securities as safe banking products. The company neither admitted nor denied the allegations.

The grand jury issued two subpoenas on May 8 seeking documents from Tampa lawyer Jonathan Alpert, who has represented NationsBank and Barnett customers in private lawsuits.

Alpert, a partner with the Alpert, Barker and Calcutt law firm, said he didn't know the target of the grand jury investigation. The lawyer said he planned to give the grand jury about two dozen boxes of internal bank documents.